Sati Shankar
25 March 2009, 12:03 PM
The cognition of the very conscience of
being a Hindu, denotes to the tolerance and the liberal view beneath diversities in sects and religions,being
explanations through the minds which in turn is bound by the limits of concepualisation, the people have been
following in India, is a direct repercussion of millennial long realization of the Cosmic Unity, Tat tvam asi (that thou
art)or Aham Brahmaasmi(I am the Devine), by we Indians or better say, Bharatiya, .To find traces of this fact, one, be
it an Indian or a foreigner, does not need to go for some theological course. If one has his “eyes open”, and if one is
“sensitive enough”, he or she can observe in the day to day behaviour of common people in India. It is so deeply
rooted and thoroughly immersed in the psyche of people, that every act of people goes unconsciously or without any
deliberate intention.
What we call Dharma, is in fact the “Order within Cosmic Unity”. This cosmic order is governed by the ordering
principle ” which keeps on working”, which is that by which the universe is upheld (Dharyate),without Dharma it
would dissolve into nothingness. But this is not possible, for though there is Disorder (Adharma), it exists, and can
exist only locally, for a time, and in particular parts of the whole. Order however will and, from the nature of things,
must ultimately assert itself. And this is the meaning of the saying that Righteousness or Dharma prevails. Dharma is
not a law imposed from without by the Ukase of some Celestial Czar. It is the nature of things; that which constitutes
them what they are (Svalakshana-dharanat Dharma).
It is the expression of their true being and can only cease to be, when they themselves cease to be. Belief in
righteousness is then in something not arbitrarily imposed from without by a Lawgiver, but belief in a Principle of
Reason which all men can recognize for themselves if they will. Again Dharma is not only the law of each being but
necessarily also of the whole, and expresses the right relations of each part to the whole.
The moment a “person” begins to exist at the time of conception, becomes bound by this cosmic order. It has nothing
to do with the “faith” or method of worship, commonly referred to as religion that the new person would follow in his
or her life after taking an independent biological life of its own. Thus the ordering law of cosmic unity is entirely
independent of the path of worship one chooses.
“The situation is analogous to the Indic position on religious salvation—that a human being has access to it not by
virtue of belonging to this or that religion—but by the mere fact of being a human being.”
The fact of matter is that the duality inherent in our own reasoning makes it more convincing to believe in all those
things which are consequences of duality. And the process goes on, leading to very many interpretation and
consequent uses and abuses by those superior in power, be it intellectual power, or physical might and wealth. It is due
to this fact, for centuries deliberate interpretations have been made by power brokers to satisfy their vested-interests.
Like Mr. Tully, Kerry Brown observes, “… the culture that we know now as Hinduism and that the Indian ones call
Sanaatana Dharma - the Law Eternal - precedes this name by thousands of years. This is more than a religion, more
than the theological direction in which the west understands religion. One can believe in all divinities or in no divinity
and remain Hindu. This is a manner to living.”
It is due to this prevalent undercurrent, Mr. Mark Tully observes that Indian secularism does respect all religions and
rejoices in the diversity of faiths we Indians follow but, “the Western world and the Indian elite who imitate it ignore
the genius of the Indian mind. They want to write a full stop in the land where there are no full stops.” This is why he
writes, “for thousands of years, in changing historical circumstances, in different countries, and cultures and climates,
people had experienced what appears to be the same reality, although describing that reality differently, I saw that a
universal God made far more sense rationally than one who limited his activities to Christians.”
We have the moral responsibility and for we must strive and work hard to check various misinterpretations of the
words like secularism and identification of Sanaatan as religion and to clear minds of the people from any pre seated
misunderstanding.
being a Hindu, denotes to the tolerance and the liberal view beneath diversities in sects and religions,being
explanations through the minds which in turn is bound by the limits of concepualisation, the people have been
following in India, is a direct repercussion of millennial long realization of the Cosmic Unity, Tat tvam asi (that thou
art)or Aham Brahmaasmi(I am the Devine), by we Indians or better say, Bharatiya, .To find traces of this fact, one, be
it an Indian or a foreigner, does not need to go for some theological course. If one has his “eyes open”, and if one is
“sensitive enough”, he or she can observe in the day to day behaviour of common people in India. It is so deeply
rooted and thoroughly immersed in the psyche of people, that every act of people goes unconsciously or without any
deliberate intention.
What we call Dharma, is in fact the “Order within Cosmic Unity”. This cosmic order is governed by the ordering
principle ” which keeps on working”, which is that by which the universe is upheld (Dharyate),without Dharma it
would dissolve into nothingness. But this is not possible, for though there is Disorder (Adharma), it exists, and can
exist only locally, for a time, and in particular parts of the whole. Order however will and, from the nature of things,
must ultimately assert itself. And this is the meaning of the saying that Righteousness or Dharma prevails. Dharma is
not a law imposed from without by the Ukase of some Celestial Czar. It is the nature of things; that which constitutes
them what they are (Svalakshana-dharanat Dharma).
It is the expression of their true being and can only cease to be, when they themselves cease to be. Belief in
righteousness is then in something not arbitrarily imposed from without by a Lawgiver, but belief in a Principle of
Reason which all men can recognize for themselves if they will. Again Dharma is not only the law of each being but
necessarily also of the whole, and expresses the right relations of each part to the whole.
The moment a “person” begins to exist at the time of conception, becomes bound by this cosmic order. It has nothing
to do with the “faith” or method of worship, commonly referred to as religion that the new person would follow in his
or her life after taking an independent biological life of its own. Thus the ordering law of cosmic unity is entirely
independent of the path of worship one chooses.
“The situation is analogous to the Indic position on religious salvation—that a human being has access to it not by
virtue of belonging to this or that religion—but by the mere fact of being a human being.”
The fact of matter is that the duality inherent in our own reasoning makes it more convincing to believe in all those
things which are consequences of duality. And the process goes on, leading to very many interpretation and
consequent uses and abuses by those superior in power, be it intellectual power, or physical might and wealth. It is due
to this fact, for centuries deliberate interpretations have been made by power brokers to satisfy their vested-interests.
Like Mr. Tully, Kerry Brown observes, “… the culture that we know now as Hinduism and that the Indian ones call
Sanaatana Dharma - the Law Eternal - precedes this name by thousands of years. This is more than a religion, more
than the theological direction in which the west understands religion. One can believe in all divinities or in no divinity
and remain Hindu. This is a manner to living.”
It is due to this prevalent undercurrent, Mr. Mark Tully observes that Indian secularism does respect all religions and
rejoices in the diversity of faiths we Indians follow but, “the Western world and the Indian elite who imitate it ignore
the genius of the Indian mind. They want to write a full stop in the land where there are no full stops.” This is why he
writes, “for thousands of years, in changing historical circumstances, in different countries, and cultures and climates,
people had experienced what appears to be the same reality, although describing that reality differently, I saw that a
universal God made far more sense rationally than one who limited his activities to Christians.”
We have the moral responsibility and for we must strive and work hard to check various misinterpretations of the
words like secularism and identification of Sanaatan as religion and to clear minds of the people from any pre seated
misunderstanding.